What the Sam Hill?!

Morality policing in Malaysia has certainly gone lopsidedly loony.

Who would have imagined a mere staff of Borders charged before the Syariah High Court for “distributing by way of selling the book entitled, Allah, Liberty and Love (The Courage to Reconcile Faith and Freedom”).

WTH???!

Technically, the charge could well be valid since Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz was the Mid Valley outlet’s store manager, but logically, neither the books by Irshad Manji nor the outlet, Borders, are hers to start with.

Nik Raina faces a RM3,000 fine or a maximum of two years' jail or both under Section 13(1) of the Syariah Criminal Offences Act (Federal Territories) 1997, if convicted.

Am really not sure how the charge is worded but going by the Star’s phrasing of “distributing by way of selling”; it seems to be one of strict liability. Legal eagles would definitely be able to explain this to all us layman.

A store manager, huh?

Didn’t have the balls to go after the real owner, is it? Borders, according to the Star, belong to Berjaya Books Sdn Bhd.

Look at the penalty for God’s sake and tell me if it’s just?

A bookstore staff…

Did she have like total control over the outlet? Over the procurement of all books?

How many books do Borders have in stock?

The one at the Curve in Damansara seems to have like a billion books from the most innocent My First ABC to the horrendously explicit Brian Azzarello’s 100 Bullets series (to cite an example).

But of course, the latter isn’t something that is "deemed to be against the Islamic Law (Hukum Syarak)" even if it does feature gratuitous sex and violence every other issue.

Is Nik Raina’s charging to set an example? Couldn’t she be just slapped with a mere warning to take the books out within a certain period - her convictions on the book’s contents and the banning act notwithstanding?

How in heaven’s name are Muslims supposed to show that Islam is the perfect Addin when you have something so logically, chronically unjust?

What others see is the authorities picking on the easiest of targets to make an example of.

Someone like Nik Raina. 

Moral Policing: A Sequel

Imagine that: there are moral police even in the much-hyped land of the free, United State of America.


Kevin Smith’s sentimental comedy “Zack and Miri make a porno” did not make the cut in the state of Utah, with “graphic nudity and graphic sex” being cited as the main concerns for the banning.

A title like that would surely court trouble elsewhere too even if the movie is not an outright pornographic or blue movie.

Remember Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone’s “Basic Instinct” (1992)? I saw that one in the United Kingdom and my, my, did it have some graphic sex scenes.

Ditto with Madonna’s “Body of Evidence” (1993) where she shared some hot candle moments (amongst others) with Willem Dafoe.

Based on the titles alone, Stone and Madonna show of skin (and more) would have passed through to the viewers should the Moral Police not view the whole movie themselves.

Truthfully, I was also once a MP myself.

It was during my secondary school days where the student body organizes on a regular basis free movie shows at the college’s lecture with yours truly one of the so-called censor board member.

This particular movie (the title has long since slipped my mind) featured Vampires in a spaceship setting, but since it was a sci-fi cum horror offering, we let it pass without any pre-viewing.

I think the particular scene that spelt the death of the free movie idea was somewhere in third quarter of the movie when, at first, there were shadows of a nude woman.

To my utter shock and horror, the shadow then shimmered into one in the form of a voluptious vampire, who started to “do” the male crew member before absorbing his essence or something.

It wasn’t an outright sex scene, but more of a foreplay kind of thing.

The next thing the hundreds of unblinking students (male and female) knew, there was a rush to the projector, the light came on and that was the end of the movie.

Our feeble excuse that the title didn’t hint of any nudity or sex didn't get us any respite.

Movie titles matters.

Malay movies such as Sofea Jane’s “Perempuan, Isteri dan …” and Aleeza Kassim’s “Panas” hinted of a certain amount of raunchiness to their storylines; never mind that these would still be confined to that allowable in our local scenes.


I watched “Perempuan, Isteri and …” as well as Nasir Bilal Khan’s “Amok” to see just how far the local artists could stretch the R-Rated stuffs, and both made do with innuendos without resorting to being too graphic with its sexual contents.

Local moviemakers have been managing to stretch this boundary further with the new offerings especially in Ahmad Idham’s “Remp-It” which showed ample plain skin and “foreplay”ing without getting into much trouble.

Reading the “Zack and Miri make a porno” banning made me realized that those who make up censor ship board (or its equivalent) are really doing a thankless job.

To do their job, and do it well enough within the context of moral policing, they have to literally watch everything as the title might not provide any dead give away of it including graphic nudity and sex scenes.

Unless, of course, it is stated outright in the movie’s synopsis, that is.

Continuing to watch would then just be plain opportunistic.

PS: With thanks to all the wonderful producers whose works I am featuring in this posting.

Prudish Nudity

Moral policing in this country can really provide some rib-tickling moments.

Just recently, I saw this show on 8TV with a Malaysian host (I think it was Hannah Tan, but I’m really not so sure) in Australia at some open space event whereby the participants went semi clothes-free (for lack of a better word).

Cue the typical local prudishness with blurred views on the appropriate portions of the bodies captured by the film crew. All good and proper except for the small fact that all of them had their underwear on – men, women, everyone!

The host even went to interview a Brazilian couple; the event's a first for her, third time for him. She was fully clothed, he - conveniently blurred from navel to neck or thereabouts - shows of some (substantial despite blurred) chest hair. :)

Hmm…

The thing is, there was no nudity. Not a single female participant shown during the show had gone topless. The men? Who cares if the men went topless? My conclusion was therefore that the digital censorship was more on the sarcasm factor than a genuine effort to “protect” the local viewers prudish senses.

Even our newspapers have this nasty habit of digital censorship, especially in some cases where there is substantial cleavage being exposed. Why chose the picture in the first place if you are so intent of not showing it in its entirety?

Of course, there are images so crass and vulgar in nature that they ought to be restricted to the domains of private viewing, but with the cable network on 24-7 and showing ample amount of exposed skin, the country’s moral police surely has a tough job on their hands.

Once upon a time, they were armed with felt tip black marker pens. Copies of suspect magazines (ironically, those on photography are always in the top five or ten) would be perused and the appropriate “hiding” of exposed bosom/breasts done. Never mind the magazines come plastic wrapped; so long as there’s nudity inside, the black markers would go to work.

How far should those in authority go in the name of prudishness? Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi received quite some flak on his “black marker” job of a classic painting. Berlusconi would surely find himself some fans should he ever want to take up our Second Home programme and reside here.

He could sit around with them and reminisce on past glories of “black marking”. “How good it felt, eh? Ahh.. The joy, the elation.” “I was meticulous. Not a single exposed nipple, a single breast, got past me.”

Nudity might be objectionable, but not all of them, crass. Some are simply too beautiful to be judged so harshly.

Beauty can be distracting, but distraction alone is not a crime.

PS: The image above is by Edward Steichen, a Luxembourg-born American artist.